Matinicus Island Education and Historical Preservation Fellow Placement Opportunity

The Matinicus Island Fellow will split his/her time between the school and the currently undeveloped Historical Society. They have outlined below the current status of the school projects, as well as areas for future development and sustainability.

School:

1) Curriculum development: When the current Fellow, Anne Bardaglio, began in January 2007, there was no existing curriculum. By visiting four other island schools and collaborating with the school board, teacher, and parents, she outlined a plan for a four-year rotating curriculum based on the Maine Learning Results. Math, Language Arts, and Writing will be completed in this Fellow cycle, and documented both in hard copy and on school computers. Many Social Studies units have been gathered and organized, but the fourth year of the Social Studies curriculum, World History, is largely undeveloped. To complete the curriculum, the next Fellow would need to focus on Science, Physical Education/Health, and Technology. The next Fellow would also need to continue writing curriculum in conjunction with Islesford teacher Lindsay Eysnogle, to align it with the new Maine Learning results released this year. Since a curriculum is a living document, the units must be taught and assessed as they are implemented for the first time.           

2) Resource development and grant writing: Prior to the beginning of the current Fellow's project, the most current series of math textbooks in the Matinicus School were from 1970s. Lanuage Arts and Writing textbooks were similarly dated. Any contacts with publishing companies were far outdated. The current status of the project includes new and complete textbooks series in Math, Writing, Language Arts and Spelling. They would like to purchase textbooks for Social Studies, Grammar and Science. The other resource they would like to develop is a student/teacher handbook. The current Fellow has collected and filed copies of student/teacher handbooks from other island schools to use as a starting point. The other aspect of this part of the project is grant writing. Between grants written by the current Fellow and teacher, they have brought in $7,000 for new library books and shelving units for the school. They have identified grants for bringing artists-in-resident programs to the island and remodeling the school kitchen. Many of these grants begin in the fall cycle, so a new Fellow would have a jumpstart on soliciting funds for projects based on grants already identified. There is a handbook complied and updated by the current Fellow of grant resources, previous grants applied for, and upcoming grants. 

3) Library development: Although this was not part of the project originally identified by the Matinicus Island school board, the Fellow and teacher worked closely together to weed and organize the school library. An estimated 1,200 volumes were removed from the library, and approximately 400 new volumes were brought into the school. They have recently been awarded an additional $2,000 to bring in new materials. Although all of the volumes in the library now have spine labels identifying them by either author last name or nonfiction topic, there is no computer-based catalogue for the library. They have identified a free cataloguing system, www.librarything.com, which will allow them to create a searchable database of available titles. This is a fundamental part of ensuring the work they have done thus far on the library is sustainable. Part of the goals established for the next Fellow include implementing this cataloguing system, training students and school staff on the process, and researching new grants to further expand our collection. The nonfiction reference section is especially in need of development, although much of the remaining grant money will be used to buy science and history titles. 

Historical Society: 

1)      Research tax-free application process, apply and carry out to completion. 

2)      Enter catalogue data for archival collections into the town computer. 

3)      Create computer and hard copy indexing of archival collections. 

4)      Pursue grant writing for funds to renovate attic of Matinicus' old school and storage area for archival collections and historical research and genealogical materials.